In recent years, information apparatus including a graphical user interface (GUI) such as a personal computer (PC), a tablet terminal, or a smartphone have become popular. A user operates the information apparatus by pointing to a target such as an icon, a button, or a command tab located at an arbitrary position of the GUI.
Pointing to an information apparatus is performed by an operation of a mouse by an upper limb of its user or by an operation by a finger of a hand on a touch pad or a touch panel. Therefore, a physically disabled person, an elderly or the like having an upper limb or a finger of a hand that does not function well is difficult to operate an information apparatus that includes a GUI.
In connection with this problem, there is a conventional technology which executes, even if a user does not perform a direct operation by an upper limb or a finger of a hand, speech recognition of the user and makes it possible to perform pointing.
FIG. 19 is a view illustrating a conventional technology. According to the conventional technology, if it is recognized that a user utters “show numbers” in a state in which a window 10A is open, the following processes are performed. The conventional technology allocates, to a region corresponding to a button, an icon, a command tab or the like that may be selected on the window 10A by a mouse, a unique number so as to be displayed. The user utters the number allocated to the region to be selected, and the conventional technology decides the selected region by speech recognition. For example, if the user refers to each of the numbers in the window 10A and wants to select the region of the number “10” in FIG. 19, the user utters “ten,” and the conventional technology decides by speech recognition that the region of the number “10” is selected.